Page 29 of Now and Then

“Coming right up,” James answers while giving me the side-eye.

“You okay?” Navy approaches me at the bar.

I open and close my mouth again, not sure how to answer.

Navy looks at James then back to me. “James, what did you do to Sutton?”

“I mentioned her Find Love profile and was asking her on a date, but it’s not looking promising.”

Navy’s face turns hot red. She abruptly turns her back to me and walks to her table.

“Naaavyy.” I draw out her name. “Would you know anything about a certain Find Love profile I supposedly have but had no idea I had?”

She avoids my gaze and rifles through her bag. She looks guilty as hell, and if she has anything to do with this dating profile, she’s probably contemplating how much trouble she’s in now that I’ve found out.

“I might know a thing or two about it.” She folds her arms over her chest.

“Miss Sutton, why do you need to find love?” Rowan squeezes me around the waist, melting my heart for the second time this morning. “I love you already.” He grabs his hot chocolate and skips back to the table.

I give Navy my best I’ll deal with you in a minute face and turn back to James. He hands my latte over and slides my food across the counter. He’s a handsome guy, slightly young for me but also very kind and generous. Any woman would be lucky to go on a date with him, but I don’t date. At least I haven’t in many, many years.

“James,” I say, “that might be my photo on that profile, but I did not sign up on Find Love. I’m really sorry for the misunderstanding. I think you’re a great guy. It’s just that I’m not really dating anyone at the moment. I’m flattered though.”

“No problem, Sutton. But when you do start dating, if I’m still single, I’d love to take you out.” He smiles a roguish smile and wipes down the counter.

“Of course.” My cheeks flame under his intense gaze. I whirl around and march toward our table.

Navy holds her hands in surrender, looking to the left to make sure her son is distracted enough for the coming conversation. He’s oblivious to what’s going on, focused on his snacks and coloring a picture.

“Don’t give me that look,” Navy says.

“I’ll give you whatever look I want.” I practically throw my items on the table and sit down. “Did you make a dating profile for me?”

“That sounds like something I might have done the other night in a moment of weakness,” she says through clenched-teeth.

“Why would you do that? You know I don’t date.” I dig into my food, biding my time to get my emotions under control. Navy lets me stew and heads to make a drink.

I’ve never been huge into dating. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of boyfriends I’ve had since high school—Lincoln, Markus, Ross, and Brandon. Each relationship lasted a few months, but nothing beyond that. Except Brandon. We dated nearly six years.

I could blame the failed relationships on a number of things, but, mostly, it truly was me not them. I wasn’t ever all in, always holding out hope that maybe someday time might finally be on Hunter’s and my side.

When Hunter went off to college, I accepted that us being together was probably never going to happen. I was just a high school girl with a crush on a boy who lived six hours away from their hometown. When he shocked everyone by coming home after his junior year of college to help his parents, I thought maybe, just maybe we could try. I wasn’t some immature high school girl anymore. Now, I was a woman making a name for myself in the real estate world.

There’s nothing quite like the heartache you get when the guy you’ve been pining over for years comes home with a serious girlfriend. Eventually, they broke it off, but by then I was with someone else. For years and years after that, it became a constant labyrinth of missed timings.

But everything changed when Brandon came into my life.

I fell hard and fast with him. We were wildly in love, and he pushed me outside of my carefully curated comfort zone. When I was with him, I let go of wanting to be with Hunter.

“Hear me out,” Navy says as she scoots back into her chair.

Rowan looks up from his coloring page and wrinkles his nose at his mom. She leans forward and touches hers to his. My heart flops over at the sweetness of their relationship.

“You and I have been saying for months . . . months . . . that we want what Greer and Luke have, right?”

“Sure, we’ve said that a time or twenty. Who wouldn’t want what they have?”

“Well, the other night, I was watching The Holiday, and it got me thinking about Colorado again.”